Another episode of estate agency ‘for sale’ boards theft has broken out, this time in Wiltshire.

EweMove franchise holder Brian Marsh has told local media that his agency, which has been running since 2016, is being targeted by thieves in the Trowbridge and Melksham areas of the country and that the thefts have been going on “for a long time.

He says both the boards and posts are being stolen and that local police are looking into the unusual crime spree, which he suspects is the work of an unnamed rival estate agency.

“We have passed on who we think may be doing this as we have suspicions based on patterns and other related activities,” he tells the Wiltshire Times.

“It’s happening quite frequently, probably about one a month. It’s always the boards that are the most visible and the most prominent. They just completely disappear.

“These boards cost around £40 each to replace, plus the cost of erection and repair. This has been going on for a long period so it’s not new.”

It is reported that approximately ten boards have been stolen over the past 12 months.

The removal of estate agency boards is not uncommon. Four years ago an estate agency in Scotland – Peachtree Properties in Renfrew – reported a spate of stolen and damaged ‘for sale’ boards including white paint being sprayed over their company name on the boards.

And a year before that another Scottish agency, Manor Estate Agents in Glasgow, reported the disappearance of 30 boards in and around the suburban satellite town of Uddingstone and, so worried were directors at the time that they began rejecting requests for viewings after 7pm.